A New York Times piece seems to treat the poor and middle class as almost interchangeable. Thus Mitt Romney vowing to “end the scourge of poverty” is equated with Mitch McConnell calling for a focus on “the stagnant middle class.”

As Arsalan Iftikhar suggested, Bobby Jindal does devote considerable effort to criticizing minority groups who have done less to fit the the American majority image. This strategy was on full display in Jindal’s softball interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto.

So what’s wrong with comparing Barack Obama to Robin Hood? Well, aside from implying that taxation is a form of “stealing”–and aside from the fact that it’s a popular theme in racist caricatures of Obama–it gives the president too much credit.

in his State of the Union analysis, Wolf Blitzer suggests advocating progressive economic policies could “hurt Democrats”–even though polls show widespread support for such measures, including, in many cases, from Republican voters.

You really don’t learn too much else about Joni Ernst, picked to rebut the State of the Union address, from media profiles, Nor do you get the impression that corporate media think you need to know much.

If the purpose of climate coverage is to convey how open-minded the New York Times is, then this piece is a success, managing to give one-third of its quotes to a proponent of a fringe theory without giving any indication that his eccentric views are virtually absent from peer-reviewed science.